Tonight, the task shifts dramatically, to Philadelphia, where the 76ers have tied the NBA record for consecutive losses with 26.

If the 76ers lose tonight, they will have the longest losing streak in the history of the four major U.S. sports.

And they have a Pistons team reeling from a buzzer-beating loss Wednesday to Cleveland, and a 32-point rout Friday against the two-time defending champions, to target in the effort to avoid it.

"No one feels sorry for us, we don't really feel sorry for anyone," Kyle Singler said. "It's another ballgame for us. We want to go out there and beat them, plain and simple."

They have to do it after their most lopsided loss of the season, 32 points.

The 78 points were a season-low for the Pistons, as were their 30 field goals.

"We've got to put it away right now," Josh Smith said. "We've got to be able to focus on Philadelphia. They're struggling. We've got to be able to go in there and not be that team to end that streak."

John Loyer, the Pistons' interim coach, generally had protected and praised his players, even as this 26-46 season has crumbled away. The Pistons are 5-17 since Loyer took over for the fired Maurice Cheeks.

This time, there was no half-full glass to ponder.

"Not to come out with any energy and play the way we're capable of in the second half is mind-boggling to me, because we haven't done that," Loyer said. "I told our guys, for whatever games I've coached, 20-plus games, I thought every single night -- other than a stretch here or there, but every team has a stretch here or there -- we've laid it on the line. Tonight, we didn't lay it on the line. And to me, that's embarrassing."

Friday was the reunion ceremony for the Pistons' first NBA championship team, in 1989.

The old guys could have fared just as well.

It was a five-point Miami lead after one quarter, 15 at halftime, and 32 after three quarters.

"I thought the first four to six minutes of the second quarter, we played like we practiced," Loyer said. "From that point on, they punched us in the mouth and we never got back up."

"They play hard, no matter who they play, no matter who they dress, no matter who they put in the game," Loyer said.

Singler said the second-half difficulties were easy to explain.

"We just stopped playing basketball," he said. "There was no rhythm out there."

Tonight, the Pistons face a team that hasn't had rhythm in weeks.

The 76ers haven't won since Jan. 29 at Boston, on a buzzer-beater by Evan Turner, a player they subsequently purged via trade in a blatant effort to get worse.

That's the team for which history awaits if the lowly Pistons don't get in the way of it tonight.

"We go out playing to win each game, but as the game goes on, we sometimes get down on ourselves. But we can't feel sorry for ourselves. We've got to keep on playing through the tough times and just get through those tough stretches."